Solar System. Reading Passages Included. Created By: The Owl Teacher

Transcription

1 Accordion Book Solar System Reading Passages Included Created By: The Owl Teacher

2 Teacher s Page This craftivity was created with the intention of briefly reviewing all parts of our solar system, such as the sun, the planets, the moon, asteroids, comets, and meteorites. In addition to covering these science concepts, it is a great opportunity to provide your students with practice reading nonfiction text to build fluency, vocabulary, and background knowledge. First print pages four through six, single-sided only. Then stack them in the order they printed and cut them in half. Take the stack on the left and place it directly on top of the stack on the right. Your pages should be in order now and can be stapled to form a reading guide booklet for students. You can make an entire class set, enough for partners, or a few to place in a center. After your students have read and discussed the solar system reading guide, provide each student with three pieces of construction paper and a single-sided copy of pages seven through nine. Students should first tape their construction paper end to end (landscape) like this picture:

3 Then have students fold each piece of construction paper in half, back and forth like an accordion. Then cut out each part of the solar system booklet (pages seven through nine) and glue on to each half. Students can then color and add facts for each section based on the reading guide. Your final product would look like this:

4 The outer four planets of the solar system are know as the gas planets because they are made up of gases. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is so big that more than 1,300 Earth s could fit inside it! Even though it is so big, it can spin very fast. It completes one rotation in just 10 hours on Earth. Saturn is most known for having rings of rocks, ice, and dust circling it. While other planets have rings, Saturn has the most rings. Some pieces of the rock and ice that spin around the planet are the size of a house, while others are as small as sand. Reading Guide Uranus also has rings and is almost two billion miles away from the sun. It contains a lot of methane gas and rotates backwards like Venus. Neptune has the stormiest weather in all of the solar system. Some storms can be as large as the Earth with freezing winds ten times faster than a hurricane. page 4

5 Did you know that at the very center of the solar system is a star that is bigger and brighter than the stars you see at night? That medium sized star is our sun. The sun is a huge ball of spinning gases that produce a large amount of energy. This energy creates heat and light for the solar system. Without this heat and light, there would be no way to survive. The Earth is a perfect distance away. It takes eight minutes for the sun s energy to reach the Earth. The sun is very hot! At the surface the temperature is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The core is even hotter with temperatures near 27 million degrees Fahrenheit! If just one spark from the sun was to hit the Earth, it would set fire to everything within 60 miles of it! Luckily, that isn t something we have to worry about. Generally at night when you look up in the sky you see a glowing sphere with the stars. That glowing sphere is the moon but it doesn t create its own light. Instead, that light is coming from the sun. The light from the sun bounces off the moon and reflects back to us on Earth. That creates the appearance of the moon glowing. Sometimes the Earth is blocking the light a little bit and that is what makes the moon appear to have different shapes, such as a half moon. The moon takes 29 1/3 days to orbit the Earth. All planets have a moon except Mercury and Venus. Some planets even have multiple moons. For example, Jupiter has 29 moons orbiting it. The moon is very different from Earth, as it does not have a magnetic field. However, it does have some seas of lava. page 1 page 5

6 The first four planets of the solar system are known as the rocky planets because you guessed it they are made up of mostly rock! Mercury is the first of the rocky planets because it is closest to the sun. Since this planet is the closest, it completes its orbit around the sun in only 88 Earth days. Planets are not the only things that orbit the sun. Comets are moving balls of rock, ice, and dust. As comets get closer to the sun, the ice melts and turns into a gas. This gas forms a long tail that carries pieces of the dust and rock.. It can be millions of miles long. Asteroids are large chunks of rock and metal that can be found in space. There are thousands of them in a belt or ring found between Mars and Jupiter. These asteroids are too small to be called planets. Venus is the second planet closest to the sun and is the brightest of all the planets. It rotates backwards and is about the size of the Earth. Of course, our planet Earth is the third in line orbiting around the sun and is the only planet that life has been found on. Since the Earth is tilted on an axis, movement around the sun causes seasons in many parts of our world. The fourth rocky planet is known as the red planet because of its red cliffs and orange sky. Mars has enormous volcanoes. When chunks of rock and metal found in space are smaller than an asteroid, it is called a meteoroid. Most meteoroids that get too close to the Earth burn up in its atmosphere. As it burns up, it creates a streak of light across the sky that looks like a shooting sky. When they do hit the Earth s surface it is then called a meteorite. Sometimes they will fall in groups and create a meteor shower. Anytime a meteor does hit the Earth s surface, it leaves a huge hole called a crater. page 2 page 7

7 The outer four planets of the solar system are know as the gas planets because they are made up of gases. Jupiter is the largest planet in our solar system. It is so big that more than 1,300 Earth s could fit inside it! Even though it is so big, it can spin very fast. It completes one rotation in just 10 hours on Earth. Saturn is most known for having rings of rocks, ice, and dust circling it. While other planets have rings, Saturn has the most rings. Some pieces of the rock and ice that spin around the planet are the size of a house, while others are as small as sand. Reading Guide Uranus also has rings and is almost two billion miles away from the sun. It contains a lot of methane gas and rotates backwards like Venus. Neptune has the stormiest weather in all of the solar system. Some storms can be as large as the Earth with freezing winds ten times faster than a hurricane. page 4

8 Did you know that at the very center of the solar system is a star that is bigger and brighter than the stars you see at night? That medium sized star is our sun. The sun is a huge ball of spinning gases that produce a large amount of energy. This energy creates heat and light for the solar system. Without this heat and light, there would be no way to survive. The Earth is a perfect distance away. It takes eight minutes for the sun s energy to reach the Earth. The sun is very hot! At the surface the temperature is about 10,000 degrees Fahrenheit. The core is even hotter with temperatures near 27 million degrees Fahrenheit! If just one spark from the sun was to hit the Earth, it would set fire to everything within 60 miles of it! Luckily, that isn t something we have to worry about. Generally at night when you look up in the sky you see a glowing sphere with the stars. That glowing sphere is the moon but it doesn t create its own light. Instead, that light is coming from the sun. The light from the sun bounces off the moon and reflects back to us on Earth. That creates the appearance of the moon glowing. Sometimes the Earth is blocking the light a little bit and that is what makes the moon appear to have different shapes, such as a half moon. The moon takes 29 1/3 days to orbit the Earth. All planets have a moon except Mercury and Venus. Some planets even have multiple moons. For example, Jupiter has 29 moons orbiting it. The moon is very different from Earth, as it does not have a magnetic field. However, it does have some seas of lava. page 1 page 5

9 Mercury is the first of the rocky planets because it is closest to the sun. Since this planet is the closest, it completes its orbit around the sun in only 88 Earth days. Asteroids are large chunks of rock and metal that can be found in space. There are thousands of them in a belt or ring found between Mars and Jupiter. These asteroids are too small to be called planets. Venus is the second planet closest to the sun and is the brightest of all the planets. It rotates backwards and is about the size of the Earth. When chunks of rock and metal found in space are smaller than an asteroid, it is called a meteoroid. Most meteoroids that get too close to the Earth burn up in its atmosphere. As it burns up, it creates a streak of light across the sky that looks like a shooting sky. When they do hit the Earth s surface it is then called a meteorite. Sometimes they will fall in groups and create a meteor shower. Anytime a meteor does hit the Earth s surface, it leaves a huge hole called a crater. Of course, our planet Earth is the third in line orbiting around the sun and is the only planet that life has been found on. Since the Earth is tilted on an axis, movement around the sun causes seasons in many parts of our world. The fourth rocky planet is known as the red planet because of its red cliffs and orange sky. Mars has enormous volcanoes. page 2 page 7 TheOwlTeacher2015 The first four planets of the solar system are known as the rocky planets because you guessed it they are made up of mostly rock! Planets are not the only things that orbit the sun. Comets are moving balls of rock, ice, and dust. As comets get closer to the sun, the ice melts and turns into a gas. This gas forms a long tail that carries pieces of the dust and rock.. It can be millions of miles long.

10 Three Facts About the Sun: Name 3. page 2

11 Three Facts About The Rocky Planets: Three Facts About The Gas Planets: page 3 page 4 The Owl Teacher 2015

12 Three Facts About The Moon: Three Facts About Space: page 5 page 6

13 A Special Thank You! Thank you for taking the time to download this resource! I know as a teacher, you have so much to do and so little time, along with being limited on your resources. I am here to help by creating products that help you take back your weekends, without sacrificing quality teaching! Thank you for letting me help you! Do you have a resource idea or one you need done? Let me know. bit.ly/owlrequest Other Great Products Solar System Causation Cards ispace Craftivity Solar System Circle Book Credits Let s Keep In Touch! Terms of Use Each page of this document is Copyright of Tammy DeShaw, The Owl Teacher. All rights reserved. (2014-current) *This product is to be used by the original downloader only for classroom and personal use ONLY. *Copying for teachers, classroom, department, school, or school system is prohibited. *Teachers may NOT upload the product to school / district servers, or to any website, distribute via , or share digital or print copies, including to file sharing sites such as Amazon Inspire or the like. *You do not have permission to claim any part of it as your own, to copy, or modify it, and you may not share or sell anything based on this document.